14 Tactics to Make Your Website Work Harder Right Now: Tactic 10 - Forms Shouldn't Look Like Forms

One of the reasons the Internet is such a beautiful thing for business people and consumers alike is the paperless aspect. During the course of a lifetime, most people fill out enough long, tedious paper forms to wipe out a small rain forest. Don't lose a captive visitor at your Contact or Quote Request page because of an unwieldy feedback form. The sight of all those blanks to fill out, required or not, puts most users into the fetal position faster than you can say Submit. Unless you are the FBI, do you really have a right to ask someone you don't even know for his telephone number? It's rude and can be likened to asking a stranger for her phone number in a sleazy bar.

Instead, take baby steps. If someone has bothered to click to your Contact or Quote Request page, strike while the iron is hot and make contacting you pain free. Provide a phone number, email address, and extremely short feedback form. The only form fields you need are Name, Email Address, and a free-form text box for comments, questions or inquiries. You've now provided three ways to be contacted that are quick and painless.

Also be sure to state somewhere near your contact form that you respect your visitors' privacy and will never share their personal information for any reason.